Report: FBI Quizzing People About Meningitis

NASHVILLE (AP) – FBI agents have been interviewing Tennessee residents sickened or widowed by fungal meningitis as part of a criminal probe into the outbreak that sickened 751 people nationwide with 64 deaths.

The Tennessean reported that agents in recent weeks have spoken with some of those sickened.

The outbreak was traced to contaminated steroid medicine made by Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center that was used in spinal injections as pain treatment. Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz is leading the investigation.

Tennessee was the second-hardest hit state, with 153 illnesses and 16 deaths. Michigan had 264 illnesses and 19 deaths.

No charges have been filed, but hundreds of people have filed civil suits against NECC, which has filed for bankruptcy, and its owners.

Joan Peay of Nashville, who survived one round of fungal meningitis in 2012 only to relapse with a more severe case a year later, said she met Tuesday with an FBI agent from Massachusetts.

"They are just at the point now where they are interviewing patients," Peay said

Questions from the agent concerned how she contracted the illness and how it affected her, she said. Other victims in Middle Tennessee also have been contacted by the FBI.

On Monday, Massachusetts U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Henry J. Boroff gave preliminary approval to a settlement of more than $100 million that lawyers agreed to in December from the bankruptcy proceedings, said Mark Chalos of Nashville, who is one of seven lawyers appointed to the plaintiffs' steering committee. However, he said that was just one more step in an ongoing legal process.

The victims' fund set up by the Massachusetts bankruptcy court will receive money from cash contributions by the owners of the compounding pharmacy as well as the proceeds from insurance, tax refunds and the sale of assets.

A total of 113 Tennessee victims have filed claims in the bankruptcy proceeding because of family deaths or personal injuries. Peay is one of those.

Peay said the back-to-back bouts with spinal meningitis had damaged her hearing, impaired her short-term memory and aged her 10 years. The second bout put her "twitching and mumbling" in a hospital bed.

"The second time, I was in the hospital for two months," she said. "I don't remember anything about the whole month of October of last year."

Peay is still being tested to make sure the infection doesn't come back.